Middle Grades

Testing data demonstrates that it is during the middle grades years that students’ academic achievement begins to slip as they make the transition from childhood to adolescence. To counter this trend, EDC has developed curricula, models of school reform, and other resources that specifically target the needs of young adolescents and the schools that serve them.

Taking a Natural Interest

The Jane Watson Irwin Perennial Garden at the New York Botanical Garden.

Two new curricula developed by EDC in collaboration with the New York Botanical Garden are exciting students about ethnobotany, the scientific study of the relationship between people and plants.

New Bedford Charter School on Course for Success

Innovative program taps community resources and sets high standards.

EDC and Dept. of Education to Explore Video Games in Classrooms

The U.S. Department of Education has awarded $9.2 million to EDC’s Center for Children and Technology.

New Middle School Curriculum Equips Kids with Tools to Eat Right and Be Active

With teenage obesity a continuing concern across America, a new curriculum specially created for middle schools is being introduced nationally to promote healthy choices among pre-teens. The curriculum, Getting Active and Eating Well, was developed by health and literacy experts at Education Development Center, Inc. (EDC), with funding from MetLife Foundation.

EDC to Share Open Source Math Curricula on Curriki

Education Development Center, Inc. (EDC), a global nonprofit research organization known for its teaching tools and professional development, today announced that it will team up with Curriki, an online community for creating and sharing open source K-12 curricula. To start, Curriki will make available EDC’s standards-based middle-grades algebra course, allowing teachers to not only access the free curricula, but to add to it or adapt it for use in their classrooms.

Leadership Content Knowledge and Mathematics Instructional Quality in the Mathematics and Science Partnerships (MSPs): A Study o

This large-scale research and technical assistance project investigates the nature of elementary and middle school principals’ knowledge and beliefs about mathematics learning and teaching and the effect of these beliefs on the principals’ practice of classroom observation and teacher supervision.

Examining the Impact of the ISS EarthKAM Project

CCT is conducting an evaluation of the ISS EarthKAM project’s impact on middle school and undergraduate students in Earth Science research. ISS EarthKAM (Earth Knowledge Acquired by Middle school students) is a NASA education program that enables students, teachers, and the public to learn about Earth from the unique perspective of space. At the core of the program is a spectacular collection of digital images of Earth. ISS EarthKAM images are unique because middle school students take them.

Girls Communicating Career Connections (GC3)

EDC in collaboration with partners in education, youth media and business, is creating a youth-produced, Web-based media series and companion educator materials on science and engineering careers, targeting girls from underserved groups (minority populations, youth of low socioeconomic status and those with disabilities). The Girls Communicating Career Connections (GC3) project’s media series—short video segments produced by middle school aged girls—will capture the inquiry-based learning experiences of girls, as they investigate what it means to be a scientist or engineer.

E-Learning for Educators Model Course Development

EDC is developing a series of model online workshops in math, English Language Arts and science for the eight state E-Learning for Educators collaboration funded by a five year U.S. Department of Education Ready to Teach grant. These workshops will offered throughout the eight state consortium (Alabama, Delaware, Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania and West Virginia) and will be used in large-scale experimental research on the impact of online professional development which involves elementary and middle school teachers in each of the states.

Jordan Education Initiative Evaluation

Education Development Center (EDC) and its partners, RTI International (RTI) and WorldLinks Arab Region (WLAR), have received funding from USAID to conduct a comprehensive evaluation of the education reform initiative the Jordan Education Initiative (JEI). The JEI is public-private partnership to use e-learning and Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) as a tool to help transform the quality of teaching and learning in Jordanian schools.